Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on The Jeff Marek Show – Brad Marchand Returns on the Vancouver Canucks and Bo Horvat.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “I think a lot of people, maybe mildly surprised considering it’s the captain after all, Allvin mentioned no discussion recently with Pat Morris the agent for Bo Horvat.
Did you have a thought on that one? Does that mean that there won’t be conversations until the end of the season? Some players like it, some players don’t.
What do we read into Allvin saying, haven’t talked to Pat Morris.”
Friedman: “I’m not surprised. I think there’s a stalemate there right now. I’ve said this to you several times now, whether on his this radio show or on our podcast, and that is that Vancouver showed in the summer that they can go from, ‘this is going nowhere to this is getting done very fast.’
Everything that I think about when it comes to Bo Horvat has that in the background.
Vancouver kept on telling J.T. Miller no, no, no, no, no, and then out of nowhere, they said yes.
Now, so I think about that all the time. That’s number one. Number two, I think it’s always harder to do it when you’re going in a stretch like that. And it’s very clear to me from what the Canucks have said publically and what I think they’re doing out there privately, that everything is under review.
I think when you’re in the kind of stretch that they’re in, it’s very hard to say, ‘we’re going to reward a player with a big extension, whether or not he’s deserving.’
I do think right now that the Canucks have a couple untouchables, and I’m not interested in causing a firestorm, I’m just stating this as a fact. Right now I don’t think Horvat’s one of them, and I think what they’re doing right now is, it doesn’t mean they’re going to trade him or anyone else, but I think what they are doing is they are trying to establish the market value of some of their players.”
Marek: “Ya, no fire there at all Elliotte. I’m sure everyone will take that with a very level head.”
Friedman: “I think rationally here, everybody knows what I’m saying. The Canucks are in a bad spot and they’re like, ‘what are our decisions going to be.’
I’m not surprised they’re not talking contract with him right now. Again, because of what happened with Miller, I don’t think that is a hard and fast rule that it can’t change.
Why do I do this myself? I have no idea.”